Chicago 2008:I rolled into the rust-stained alley behind an Untitled dive bar just as the last echoes of a rain-slicked Mercedes hissed away. The neon sign overhead bled sickly pink into my open skull, mixing with the taste of stale tequila that still lingered on my tongue. Inside, bodies convulsed to a beat so punishing it felt like hot needles drilling into my bones.She was draped over a battered barstool lean, feral, a hunger rolling off her in waves you could almost taste.
Her T-shirt clung to her ribs, soaked through with sweat and something stronger something that made the hairs on my neck prickle. I slipped a white pill into her palm; she crushed it between two stained fingernails, the powder dancing in the low light like sugar in coffee.
Moments later we were entwined on a threadbare couch, the upholstery a map of countless betrayals. I could hear her pulse hammering, each beat a sermon on excess.
Our breaths tangled in the hush between songs, bodies slick with a heat that felt biblical. A drill-rash of energy buzzed through my veins three hits of crystal, maybe four and my vision blurred around her jawline, the way her lips parted when she whispered my name.
The bar’s strobe cut through us in jagged flashes: her skin glimmered dew-wet; my chest stung with a thousand tiny fires. Around us, the room trembled tin cans rattling in gutters, distant laughter laced with desperation. I tasted ether and regret. I smelled stale perfume and spilled beer.
She pressed me down into the couch cushions, denim and flesh grinding together. The world narrowed to the slick of her thigh against mine, the rasp of her voice begging me to go deeper, until the boundaries between us dissolved in a haze of lust and chemicals. My hands roamed like hungry predators, mapping every ridge of her body without mercy.
When we finally crumpled, dripping and spent, the bass throbbed beneath the floorboards like a wounded animal. I cupped her face, traced the dazed shiver that ran across her cheek. She smiled, a crooked, hollow curve, and asked me why in a voice so soft it nearly snapped my heart in two.
Outside, the city was breathing fire. We stumbled back into that neon alley, shaking off shards of euphoria like glass. Her laughter echoed off the brick walls sharp, manic, and goddamn irresistible.
I tipped my head and met the dawn, every nerve ending alive with memory. In that moment, I knew we were addicts of the night, hitchhiked to the edge of oblivion and still desperate for more.
Hedged in lust, haunted by tomorrow, and utterly undone by the smallest touch.
- JSPC // w a n t o n
